Reserve Your Seat at the Banquet of Consequences- The Sunday Collage

Tonight I was out at the racetrack when I received a call that a friend of mine had died. We weren't particularly close but I liked him enough that I teased him a lot. He was good natured. He was in his 30's.

If I've learned one thing in life- it is that life has consequences. The idea that you can live dangerously or foolishly and escape the consequences of that lifestyle is a myth. Every one of us seems to have heard about some guy who smoked two packs of cigarettes a day and lived to be 90. Mostly, I think, that is bullshit. Everyone I know that drinks and smokes heavily dies young. In my friend's case- he literally drank himself to death. He might not have known the consequences entirely but he had other health related issues. A girlfriend of his had died last year and the truth is, he was never the same. I'm not sure he cared about living anymore. Pretty sad when I think about it. He had a depression he just couldn't escape.

I think 2014 may be the year that we take our seats at the banquet of consequences.

I am a conspiracy theorist. Without a doubt. I believe in conspiracies largely- because they have been proven time and time again- to exist. We've seen mortgage banking conspiracies, libor rigging scandals, and there is no doubt in my mind that the gold market is manipulated by central bankers. Even Germany has come out to say that gold's price is being suppressed.

Our President's entire presidency has been one big conspiracy that started with his birth records and class transcripts, and has extended through at least five scandals that began when he gave every thieving banker in America a get of out of jail card.   

All the fraudulent numbers including inflation, unemployment, housing starts, and fudged corporate earnings have reached their respective zeniths.

A completely rigged world has no encore. Quite simply, we skipped the banquet of consequences in 2008 and the caterers are back. The banquet is on in 2014.

The other day I was listening to a gal on talk radio who said that she could afford to pay about 250 a month or about 3000 dollars a year for healthcare. Unfortunately she said, Obamacare was going to cost her (for her family of four) about 11,000 a year or 900 a month. They had a combined income of 70,000 gross or 50,000 net. Since healthcare is paid for after taxes, her new bill will amount to over 20% of her available after tax funds. Or about the same as her home mortgage. My situation is very similar.

So where are people going to get the money to pay for healthcare? A- They're not.

I also noted that Congress eliminated eight tax breaks this year- two that are going to effect me dramatically. I think we're just a little early yet and people haven't started filing and getting a taste of this. I think I am going to owe an additional 500 more this year even though my income went down.

For 5 years I've been on this blog waiting for the banquet to arrive. Not because I am some doomsday prepper but because I have always known there are consequences for our actions. Somehow this country has been able to avoid the consequences of what happened prior to 2008- largely I think because the central bank has been pouring money into Wall St. and the stock market desperately trying to avoid a cataclysmic deflationary episode.

I noted a poll the other day which has Obama finding new lows. Even lower than Nixon in the midst of the Watergate scandal. I don't think Obama's approval ratings are going to get a dead cat bounce either- in fact he may wind up with the same 10% approval rate that Congress has. Truth is- he should have been impeached long before Benghazi.

Life is all about consequences. Today my 53 year old body hurts. I can feel every nagging injury in my legs and arms. My knees, sans a meniscus here or there, crack and pop when I walk. My feet and ankles are sore from years of weightlifting abuse. My right shoulder aches badly where I tore a rotator cuff tackling a guy who thought 15 years in prison was more than he could bear. I have other issues too. All of them are the consequences of my lifestyle choices. Some of them I made unwittingly- some I did not.

So I have to get ok with all of that. I accept responsibility. I have to be ok with everything that is about to happen in America as well- because as a man- I understand that we don't escape the consequences of our actions just because we want to. That's just not the way life works. 

I hope my friend is in a better place.